Agnes Callard's 2025 Book Open Socrates: The Case for the Philosophical Life, and Walter J. Ong's Thought

Abstract

In my 5,800-word review essay "Agnes Collard's 2025 Book Open Socrates: The Case for the Philosophical Life, and Walter J. Ong's Thought," I first highlight my life and my reading, including highlighting the thought of the American Jesuit Renaissance specialist and cultural historian and pioneering media ecology theorist Walter Jackson Ong, Jr. (1912-2003; Ph.D. in English, Harvard University, 1955) of Saint louis University, the Jesuit university in the City of St. Louis, Missouri -- where, over the years, I took five courses from Father Ong. Nest, I succinctly highlight Agnes Collard's new 2025 book Open Socrates: The Case for the Philosophical Life (Doubleday). But are contemporary Americans ready to hear Agnes Collard's case for the philosophical life? She makes a good case. In my 5,800-word review essay, I mention Agnes Collard by name 33 times; I mention Ong by name 27 times.